Brit Boiler Cert

[IP]

Greetings all.

Chaps, a friend of mine had a Winsons Brit kit built by a bloke the name of which was david James from the Swansea area of Welsh wales.

My friend had the kits sent directly to Mr James and as such never received a boiler certificate for his loco.

Does anyone have a contact for Mr James so that my friend can make the appropriate enquiries.

Regards,

IP

[greasemonkey]

Hi IP
Personally I wouldn't bother with the original boiler certificate. I don't know a club boiler inspector who would accept it for running and the southern fed rules say that a manufactures certificate is not acceptable. You might just as well get your club inspector to do a twice hydraulic before you put the cladding on and mount the boiler in the frames.

Andy

[IP]

Andy,

Some clubs will acept a manufacturers cert as proof of a x2 hydraulic test.........as the cladding is on the boiler I was hoping this would be the case.

Also one hears so many rumours regarding the quality of Winsons boilers that I was hoping sight of an original certificate my give a ray of hope that the boiler might actually be any good ...............before I get the ommers out and bash out a new un.

Regards,

IP

[Garry]

Hi IP, Dont forget I was very worried about the Winson/Modelworks boiler I received for my A4 after all other problems. It did come with a certificate signed by the same person both Winson and Modelworks used/use, ie one of their employers. I did not take much notice of it and got our club to do both hydraulic and steam tests which were successful without problems. Our boiler inspector just wanted to see what it said which was built to standard design and then was offered the drawings supplied with the kit. It has now steamed on about four or five occasions with the boiler holding up well.
Garry

[Garry]

IP, I forgot to mention at the end was that the boiler was one of the best parts of the whole loco's kits (apart from the shape which is unseen under the cladding). From all the other people I have been in contact with or read about, I have only heard of 1 boiler leaking. Maybe this was because they were contracted out, I dont know.

Garry

[the_viffer]

I heard differently.

Doug Hewson said that he had one which he tested before fitting only to find the crown stays were not soldered. It had a Winson boiler certificate.

Adrian Grimmett showed me some 7.25 Brit boilers where the tubeplate was the last plate to be added. Fine but for the barrel being tapered. You can guess the rest.

[steamjohn248]

Dont want to spread alarm but I was speaking to a engine builder a bit back who had contracted with a guy in Wales to assemble his Winson Kits at a certain sum per kit. Regular payments were made until the loco was supposedly finished. Repeated requests to be allowed to come and pick it up were stalled with things like painting not quite finished etc. Eventually in desparation the Chap took himself off to Wales to collect, not a finished loco but a stack of soggy cardboard boxes full of rusty bits. Hope it was'nt the same guy as had your friends boiler.

[IP]

From your description I wouldn't be at all suprised if the gentleman you have been talking to is one and the same who's loco I have got in my workshop at the moment trying to put right.

The list of disasters on this loco is almost as long as the loco itself.

My friend was told that the loco had been steamed and run....I find that hard to believe when no soot was found in the smokebox, could have run on propane I suppose but there again it would be hard to run with the valve gear assembled backward on one side of the engine....and opposing cylinders set up to run in opposite directions at the same time.

Still at least the maiden run would have been amusing.

Regards IP

[the_viffer]

And only today I was reading Mike Palmer of Station Road Steam saying he'd never come across any model engineering rogues. He should stay inside more.